Forget the metaverse. Forget endless scrolling. Two of startup land's biggest success stories are cashing out of the digital rat race and betting hard on something decidedly analog: getting people to actually sit in the same room together.
According to TechCrunch, Brynn Putnam, who sold her connected-fitness startup Mirror to Lululemon for $500 million, has launched Board, a 24-inch touchscreen table designed for groups to gather around, not for solo screen time. Meanwhile, Tristan Walker, who previously built the men's grooming brand Walker & Company (sold to Procter & Gamble), is scaling Heirloom Craft, a network of fine-craft trade schools starting with a leatherworking academy in San Francisco.
These two businesses, a game table and a craft school, share the same mission. Both rest on the theory that tech has eroded human connection, and there is serious money waiting for whoever rebuilds it.
The timing feels deliberate. The World Health Organization just classified loneliness as a global health crisis, linking it to roughly 870,000 deaths annually. Two-thirds of Americans told Harris Poll they'd rather spend money on experiences than stuff. They are exhausted by how sterile and generic retail and digital spaces have become.
This signals generational burnout with endless connectivity. Gen Z and millennial consumers are tired of screens and actively seeking friction, craft, and community, the things that tech promised to optimize away but actually just erased. This is a correction, not nostalgia marketing.
The East Coast entrepreneur crowd seems to be leading this shift. Bonobos founder Andy Dunn and Wing founder Audrey Gelman have similarly pivoted toward connection-first ventures. This is not a fringe trend. It is a full-blown pivot among founders with proven track records and real capital behind them.
The stakes are large. If Putnam and Walker crack the code on monetizing human connection at scale, they will build billion-dollar companies. They will have diagnosed and solved one of the defining crises of our time, all while making a killing. That's the outcome founders actually dream about, and why everyone's suddenly paying attention.
